Robert Land School is now officially the Eva Rothwell Resource Center.
Robert Land School on Wentworth Street North closed in June, 2004. Yesterday it officially became the Eva Rothwell Resource Center, named for the mother of benefactor Edward Palonek . She attended Robert Land as a girl.
The old classrooms have new uses. One is a parent/child drop-in program, another is a drop-in room for teens, already so popular that its hours have been extended. The old school library is becoming an innovation center. There are after school homework programs, summer day camps, karate, dance, basketball and football.
With 48,000 square feet of space, there are ambitious plans under way to make the school the go-to place for neighborhood children, teens, parents and seniors alike.
The resource center will be a place to learn, to socialize, to look for a job, to see a doctor or police officer, to turn to for start-up furniture, warm clothes, or emergency food -- all of it free of charge.
Several programs are already up and running, just the beginning of a long list that will come on stream over the coming year. There are negotiations under way with potential tenants for the upper floor of the old school. Their rent will pay the cost of operating the rest of the building.
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